Failing to Fail: Lessons Lost by Always Winning

For most of us, the desire to win has been a motivator even from a very young age. Whether avoiding being the last one so you don’t have to be the rotten egg or fighting tooth and nail to get Park Place in Monopoly, we are bred to win. It’s understandable; those who win often have better opportunities, and ultimately get what they want by winning. We all want to win at some point in our lives, but losing isn’t always bad.

Those who have lost have learned many things about themselves and the world around them that the winners may never learn or experience. The losers learn how to work harder to follow their dreams, which may ultimately land them more success than those who have sailed through life winning. The losers see things along their journey to winning that the winners never do. Failure isn’t permanent. Failure isn’t an end all. But winning can be.

Those who always win see no reason to try harder. Sure they may have become a winner by hard work, but by never failing a constant winner has missed out on many ways to improve, and learn. The constant winners aren’t prepared for when something inevitably fails one day. Failing to fail can result in irreparable failure.

Failure is an Opportunity to Do Better

If you fail, it isn’t an end point. Failure is a stepping stone to do better. If you’re “winning” in a comfortable job, why would you bother trying something else? But if you fail, you’re going to push yourself to try harder, to meet new obstacles and ultimately move forward. A winner may just get stuck in what’s comfortable, meaning they may just miss out on many opportunities.

Sure, there are people who fail and use it as a reason to quit. But those who actually want to be the winners are going to use it as an opportunity to improve their skills and learn all they can about being the best version of themselves.

Challenging Yourself Means You Constantly Improve

When you fail, it means you have encountered a challenge. And encountering challenges are an opportunity to work harder, learn more, and try new things in order to improve. Failures help teach you your weaknesses, and thus teach you areas that you need to work on to improve. If you constantly win, it doesn’t mean you don’t have weaknesses, it simply means the challenges you’ve faced haven’t been in areas that you have room to grow. If you never identify your weakness, you won’t be able to constantly improve.

It’s not to say that winners don’t improve, but often they don’t need to. They can be comfortable in the places they land, and don’t have to try to do better. If you fail, you learn many things about yourself and you learn what you need to do to improve.

The Grass Isn’t Always Greener on the Other Side

Many people associate success and winning with money. But what many people don’t realize is the amount of stress that comes along with such responsibility. Some of the happiest people have encountered failure, and it helps them to realize how good they really have it. If you’re always winning, you may not be able to appreciate the things that you have and experiences you have gained.

Many people find that they don’t always know what they want until they lose and they see what they thought they wanted come to life in front of them. Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean it is the best match for you, and without failing, you may not recognize that. Winners can find themselves in a role that they thought they wanted, but without failure they don’t know it.

Being the Rotten Egg Teaches You Many Lessons

You learn a lot of things by coming in last place. You learn about the winners, and everyone else along the way. You learn lessons from the competition, and you watch them attempt to do the same thing you do. You learn a lot about your teammates, because while the winners were running ahead leaving everyone in their dust, you got to know the trials and tribulations of everyone behind them.

You learn humility, because you can’t just up and quit after a failure. If you want to be happy, you have to learn how to survive by taking a different route. Losing is an opportunity to learn how to be better, and learn from those around you. And losing isn’t always about being in last place. It means you just aren’t exactly where you want to be. You can still win by not being in first place.

Failing Teaches You to Handle Adversity

You can fail gracefully. It may not happen the first time, but the more you fail and push yourself, the more you’re going to know what to do when you are met with a challenge. Those who always win don’t really know a challenge. Life has come easy to them. So when they do end up being met with a failure or a difficult situation, they may not know how to handle it. Learning to struggle can help you win during times of struggle.

Those who have encountered challenges are better equipped to overcome them. When life gives the losers lemons, the losers make lemonade. When life gives the winners lemons, they don’t know what to do with them.

Challenges are inevitable. Some are good, and some are not. But if you never encounter a challenge, are you really pushing yourself to be the best you can be? Failure really isn’t an end point. It’s an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to improve and an opportunity to be the best person you can be, for both yourself and the people around you. So don’t be afraid of a little failure, use it as motivation to someday make it to Park Place, even if you’re the rotten egg.